New Years had been a bust, he'd thrown an elaborate party and made everything absolutely perfect just for Caroline and she didn't even go, not even to tease him and only leave a message like at Christmas. He'd even gone so far as to hold parties on multinational festivals and holidays including the Armenian and orthodox Christmas, Lupercalia for the Roman end of winter as well as on groundhogs day for whatever reason, but he got nothing from it. Klaus was sure Elijah knew the running theme with the party dates and by Valentine's Day had worked up enough worry to ask.

"There is no reason, you said that we needed to present a warmer atmosphere towards our subjects why not party's?" He'd answer without looking at his older brother, knowing that after one thousand years together he would know there is more, and hoped to avoid further questioning.

"Our sister believes something is wrong and thinks I should help you," Elijah sounded as annoyed with their sister as Klaus felt from her meddling.

He let out a dramatic sigh and stood to retrieve a glass of whiskey, leaving him more time before Elijah pestered more on the subject. The glass was downed in seconds and refilled before he sat, "she always thinks there's something wrong with me and this has only come up to take our minds away from her rekindled relationship with Marcel, which I believe to be yet another mistake in trying to earn my respect, going behind my back will do nothing in her favour." though he was looking straight at Elijah, Klaus's raised tone was for the benefit of their sister, who he could clearly hear just above their heads, listening in to the interrogation he was being put through by his siblings.

Elijah's eyes narrowed at his younger brother but left the conversation there, knowing Klaus would defend and deflect any further questions. "I expected to be having a celebration tonight, in fact many of our usual guests have expressed how much they were looking forwards to a valentines event," he noted almost as a passing thought though he had to turn to hide the smirk at his brothers widened eyes. "I hadn't felt the need to celebrate such a meaningless holiday, it only would've aided in bringing Marcel closer to our dear Rebekah" Klaus once again used Rebekah to dodge Elijah's persistent attempts to unlock his hidden agenda, he had often remarked at how Elijah would have been an excellent lawyer in another life. His brother only hummed in response before making an excuse to leave, when Klaus was repetitive with his answers it meant he wouldn't be giving in soon.

Rebekah had tried to listen in to the best of her ability but with the mention of her relationship with Marcel had left her ashamed and shocked at her brothers confession of knowledge. She had prioritised texting her pseudo-boyfriend to lay low for a while and yes that means she can't visit tomorrow.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After hours upon hours of feeding within his city to calm the stress that only emerged when his siblings were involved, it was in this moment alone he found a silver lining in Kol's death, Klaus felt sated but not enough to return to the Mikaelson mansion just yet and so walked down to the bayou needing to be close to his natural home. Having Caroline on his mind at all time left him in the dangerous situation as a werewolf to rely on his primal instincts and claim her as his lifelong mate, in his heart and gut he felt the need to be closer to her and these games of hers weren't helping that. With his vampire side using a thousand years worth of strength to fight back from this and use sense to believe that claiming Caroline as his own would leave him with a very obvious Achilles heal exposed to all his enemies. He wouldn't even put it above Elijah to use her against him if ever the dagger threats started looming over their heads once more.

Before long he had reached the border territory and decided to turn back, opting for vampire speed this time, not wanting to be alone with his thoughts once more, and having a newly persistent urge to better hide his daggers. He entered his home and swiftly manoeuvred through the building, so not to run into his siblings and have to hide the fact that he was actually excited and almost giddy for Caroline's next surprise, that conversation could wait maybe another hundred years or so.

When he reached his room uninterrupted, more so because his siblings were also avoiding him for their own reasons, he didn't have time to care about that before he caught a glint of something shining in the light of his bedroom. He went to inspect and found an open blue velvet box with a necklace inside, on the chain there was a silver pendant with a wolfs head attached to a cross. Under the box was a card hanging out, he reached to grab it and found it was one of those tacky valentines cards, with red love hearts covering the front and inside the distinct Miss Mystic Falls handwriting

I was sad to hear there was no party tonight but I'm all about Valentine's Day, I get you have problems with love so it was expected.

I think I owed you for all the romantic stuff you got me, so here's my repayment

C.F xo

Shock came to mind but happiness won over, he couldn't help the grin that spread over his face. This wasn't caroline right there in front of him, but it's a sign of affection isn't it? Maybe Valentine day isn't that bad.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Thanks for reading, sorry it's been so long I've been on holiday and got a new computer so had to download word and just got back to school, fun times...

Please leave reviews love to hear your comments :)